


ready to stand

by mademoiselle_murasaki



Category: Versailles no Bara | Rose of Versailles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, in an old fairy tale sense, just to be on the safe side, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-08 18:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12870018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoiselle_murasaki/pseuds/mademoiselle_murasaki
Summary: The darkness crawled across his skin, laden with dread.As payment, give me that clear voice with which you speak such bold words."Take my voice," said the young merman. "I do not need it to follow the lady prince."A lost merman and a lonely prince become unlikely friends. The Rose of Versailles meets The Little Mermaid. Fairy tale AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**\- I -**

          Once upon a time, in a white castle awash with sunlight and wind off the sea, there lived a shining prince, clever and intrepid, much beloved by all who sailed to the little kingdom. Blessed by Fortune with clear blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and a halo of golden curls, the prince lived in comfort, doted upon by five loving sisters.

          Playing on the shore one day, the young prince spied a shadow floating on the waves, and skipped out across the rocks to talk to it. “Who are you?” said the prince to the shadow.

          “I don’t know,” the shadow replied. “I am lost.”

          “You could be my friend,” suggested the prince. “My sisters have all married, and I am lonely.”

          The shadow, which took the shape of a child, did not answer at first, for the young prince did not seem to notice his fins and scaly green tail. “You are not afraid of me?” he asked.

          “I am not afraid of anything,” said the prince. “Why should you frighten me?”

          Flicking his tail through the water, the shadow answered, “Because I am not a boy like you.”

          “There are no boys like me,” the prince declared, chin held high, for the young prince was, in truth, born a girl.

          So the little merman became fast friends with the lady prince, who came every day to play with him on the shore, and neither wanted for companionship any more. The prince challenged him to contests of building tall sandcastles, which he often lost; contests of swimming and diving between the rocks, which he often won; and contests of wits and riddles, in which they were soon evenly matched.

          One day when they were no longer children and yet still far from grown, the lady prince came wearing a pensive frown where her triumphant smile belonged. “What is the matter?” the young merman asked.

          “My father is sending me to a far-away kingdom to become a brave soldier,” said the prince, furrowing her brow.

          “I wish I could go,” said the young merman, sad that he could only disappoint her. “But I do not know how, for I have no legs with which to follow you.”

          Despite their cleverness, they could think of no way to make the journey together, and parted that day with hollow promises to meet again one day. The young merman struggled to find sleep under the bald moonlight, plagued by curiosity for the hills and forests of which the lady prince spoke.

          Before the break of morning, the young merman left the sparkling bay with the white castle, bound for the open ocean. The journey through the lonely blue void exhausted him almost to the point of turning back, but he pressed on. Eventually he reached a place known only by half-remembered whispers, a deep, deep trench where there existed no trace of life. Plumes of boiling smoke erupted from the seafloor and scalded the young merman’s skin as he groped blindly through the inky black water.

          When he came to a pitch-dark cave at the bottom of the sea, a deep voice echoed all around, beckoning him in. _Why have you come to me, lost one?_ it queried.

          Fighting the instinct to flee, the young merman stammered helplessly, “Wh-wh-what are you?”

          The voice rang out deafeningly between his ears. _Something ancient beyond telling, with a power you could not begin to fathom._

          “I want to become human,” said the young merman. “Please, give me legs so I may walk to far-away lands as they do.”

          _I can make two legs of your fish’s tail,_ said the voice, _but it will be the same as if a sharp sword cut them apart. Every step you take on dry land will be like walking on needles and knives, and blood will run from your footsteps._

          Too young to imagine such pain, the young merman said, “I am not afraid, so long as my legs be sturdy enough to follow where the lady prince goes.”

          The darkness crawled across his skin, laden with dread. _As you wish, I will let you walk in the human world for three years and a day, after which you must return to the sea, else you perish on the land._

          This seemed fair to the young merman, sure that the prince would return to her castle by the sea by then, and he agreed.

          _I will give you a potion to drink upon the shore,_ said the voice. _As payment, give me that clear voice with which you speak such bold words._

          “Take my voice,” said the young merman. “I do not need it to follow the lady prince.”

          No sooner did the last word fall from his lips than did the darkness leap in to strangle him. He grappled with phantom hands around his throat until his vision began to fade; then, as suddenly as it had come over him, the pressure vanished and he collapsed into the sand. When he opened his eyes, a bottle, clear and bright as a diamond, rested in his hands. The cave grew silent and empty save for a lingering black aura, which said no more.

          The potion in its tiny bottle gave off a star-bright light in the young merman’s hands, illuminating his way back through the murky trench. Clutching it tightly to his chest, he swam for the surface, thinking all the while of the lady prince preparing to set out on her journey.

          He reached the bay with the white castle as its walls were set ablaze by the sun sinking into the sea. On the shore stood the prince, searching for something in the waves. Oh, how the young merman wished to call out to her, but his voice had gone and he could not make any sound at all. The prince retreated to the castle as night fell, seeing nothing upon the sea, and the young merman returned at last to the rocks where they had so often played.

          Doubt overcame him as he stared at the glimmering potion in his hands. The young merman wanted so badly to see the prince’s world, but the bravery he had wielded against the creature in the cave deserted him now. He squeezed his eyes shut, and in a single breath opened the bottle and gulped down the clear drops that spilled from within, feeling them burn like fire all the way. The magic ripping him apart was every bit as terrible as the creature had foretold, and then some; he could not bear it.

          When the young merman came to, he lay washed upon the shore with two pale and perfect human legs where there had once been scales and fins.

          The first blush of dawn lit his face, and there appeared the lady prince in her tall boots and traveling cloak, come to the shore one last time on the morning of her departure. Finding her friend sprawled out across the sand, flexing his ten toes in wonder, she ran to his side.

          “What happened to you?” the prince demanded, for he had disappeared without a word and caused her a great deal of worry. “I thought I would never see you again.”

          The young merman smiled weakly at the prince who was not afraid of anything, but could tell her nothing of his ordeal. The lady prince reached out a hand, and he took his first step on human feet to grasp it. The fine sand underfoot cut into his skin like the points of a hundred needles and he would have fallen without the prince to catch him. Unable even to cry out in pain, he pressed on with her help, climbing away from the water until they stood together in the courtyard of the white castle.

          “Will you come with me?” asked the prince, and he nodded, earning one of her beaming smiles in return. The young merman shivered in the ocean breeze; she loosed her cloak from her shoulders and wrapped it around him instead.

          “You shall be my brother,” said the lady prince, “for as long as we are together.”

          So the young merman took the prince’s hand and let her lead him to a far-away kingdom where there was no sea, following her through forests so deep he feared he would lose her amidst the trees. After long days of riding, the young merman taught himself to walk, feeling sharp blades underfoot where there was naught but rocks and dirt. When the prince saw him walk, she bade him to run with her, until they laughed and played in the woods just as they had upon the shore. The young merman walked farther every day, though his footsteps were stained with blood, and followed the prince across snow-capped mountains taller than the ocean was deep.

 

**\- II -**

          For some years the lady prince studied the arts of war in a grand city under the watchful eye of her kind old nanny. True to her word, the prince kept the young merman by her side always, and in this way he learned everything she knew of the world. The young merman learned to read and write in the prince’s language and discovered texts in ancient tongues that had long since fallen into silence. The lady prince was well-liked by all in the mountainous land, but rarely let others near to her heart; she preferred, instead, to play tricks on them with the help of the young merman, confounding her schoolmates with their secret signs and uncanny bond.

          But the best days of all were the idle afternoons they spent in the sun-dappled woods, all alone save for the clear mountain stream that rippled across its pebbly bed. The prince fished lazily from the gnarled roots of an old oak tree, whistling or dozing or telling stories while the young merman climbed out on the rocks below and eased his aching legs into the cool water, letting the blood wash from his feet as he listened.

          All too soon, it seemed, the prince’s years of study came to an end, and they left the far-away kingdom. But instead of returning to the castle by the sea, the prince was asked by her father to visit the palace of their closest ally in a land where roses grew. There they met the queen’s daughter, said to be the most beautiful princess in the world, and even the lady prince knelt to kiss her hand, so charming was she. The princess laughed and the palace filled with light, and flowers bloomed where she stepped.

          Not long after the arrival of the lady prince, a knight came to the palace from lands far to the north. The knight had heard tales of the princess’ beauty and come to court her, only to find that the queen had set a series of impossible tasks to her daughter’s suitors. The lady prince did not hold much hope for the knight at first, for although he was fair of face and eloquent enough to stir even her own guarded heart, none of the princess’ suitors stayed long by her side. Yet the seasons turned with the stars in the sky, and the knight from the northern lands remained. One look at the princess’ blushing smile told the prince all she needed to know; she and the knight had fallen suddenly, irrevocably in love.

          The young merman stayed by the prince’s side as she became friends with the princess of the land of roses and her loyal knight. Though he feared that he would be forgotten, the prince only held him in ever closer confidence as she grew into a strikingly handsome lady. Watching the slow changing of the prince’s heart, the young merman wondered at how the knight could so completely fail to notice.

          In this way they would have returned to the white castle by the shore, and the young merman to the sea without complaint, for he had seen the prince’s world and was content.

          Shortly before their departure, however, the lady prince accompanied the princess and her knight out to a meadow nestled between sweeping hills of wildflowers in full bloom. Taking the princess so far from the palace worried the prince, and she asked the young merman to come with them, for she would trust none other with the princess’ well-being. They left together in the morning and traveled in peace, but as they crossed an old footbridge on their way, the young merman felt the cutting pain in his feet and stumbled, allowing the princess to slip and fall down the steep, rocky riverbank.

          The uproar over the accident was swift, and the young merman was brought before the queen to explain how he had let the princess come to harm. But he could make no protest in his own defense, and bowed his head to wait for death.

          “Stop!” cried the lady prince.

          The young merman looked up as his prince flew in front of him, radiant and golden in the lights of the palace. “This man is the same as a brother to me,” declared the lady prince, drawing her sword. “If he is to die for this accident, then I must die first, for I am responsible.”

          Even the princess pleaded with the queen for mercy until the young merman was set free. His legs trembled and gave out beneath him, but the lady prince helped him to walk, pretending not to see the tears that spilled down his face. The prince had done something for which the young merman could never repay her, even if he spent ten lifetimes at her side.

          As soon as the commotion died down, they bade farewell to the princess and her knight and left for home, reaching the castle by the sea three years to the day since they set out together.

          At the end of the young merman’s last day on land, he and the lady prince walked along the shore at sunset, where he wished her a good night in their own way and remained behind, watching her disappear with the fading light of day. Only after the sky had gone dark and sprinkled the sea with starlight did he walk out across the rocks and let the tide wash over his tired feet.

          _You have returned to me, lost one,_ called the voice from the depths of the ocean.

          “I cannot leave my lady prince’s side now,” said the young merman. “Is there no way to keep my human legs?”

          The demon (for the young merman had long since come to think of the dark voice as such) seemed to grin in the darkness, light glinting off the waves like the gleam of many sharp teeth. _Merfolk cannot live forever on the land,_ it said, _for they do not possess the eternal soul of a human._

          “Can you give me such a soul?” asked the young merman, desperately.

          _There is a way,_ said the demon. _Do you love your prince?_

          The young merman hesitated to answer at first, afraid to put words to the fragile new emotion stirring in his chest. “Yes,” he said at last, “I do.”

          _Then I will make a contract with you,_ said the demon. _Keep your human legs, follow your prince. If you are successful in winning her heart, then you will share in her eternal soul._

          Although he knew that the lady prince had already set her heart on another, the young merman had no fear of his own fate, thinking only of the debt he owed to his dearest friend. “And in exchange…?”

          _Should the prince forsake you and marry another,_ the demon warned him, _you shall turn to sea foam with the next dawn, and the pieces of your broken heart will be mine._

          “I will do it.” Even with no thought of winning the prince’s heart for his own, the young merman could not ask for more than to be at her side until she no longer needed him there.

          The demon’s black aura crept in like the fog, and the young merman closed his eyes, feeling something smooth and heavy drop into his hands. _Your courage is admirable, lost one,_ the demon’s voice reverberated in his ears. _Take this and cut your hair as proof of your resolve._

The young merman found a blade of polished obsidian resting in his palms, darker than ink, its undulating edges wickedly sharp. He tested its weight in his hands, and then reached up to slice through the ribbon that held back his wild curls. The salty breeze ruffled what remained as he flung his severed hair into the sea where the demon waited.

          “Take my hair,” said the young merman. “I do not need it to follow the lady prince.”

          He was about to throw the knife into the water after it when the demon stopped him. _Keep the blade,_ it whispered. _If ever you should wish it, drive it into her heart – offer it to me in place of your own, and you will be released from our contract. Do not forget…_

          The young merman stood, rooted in place, for long hours after the demon’s voice drifted away with the tide. He resolved over and over to throw away the knife, yet could never quite force himself to do it. Finally, he tucked the obsidian blade into his boot and returned to the white castle as the first pale rays of dawn touched the shore, determined to put it out of mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with yet another shameless fairy tale AU! The first draft of this fic is dated 11/30... of 2014.  
> ... it's been in the works awhile.
> 
> Story's about halfway written, so I'm hoping this will motivate me to finish it! The fic's split into five arcs, but the first two were rather short, so I've made the executive decision to combine them into a single chapter. That means there'll be four chapters in total, so don't freak out if I occasionally call chapter four "the fifth arc" or something.
> 
> I have to apologize for the stiff and archaic writing style. I was going for "old-fashioned fairy tale," and it turns out my stiff and archaic writing's kind of suited to it. That's why nobody gets named in this fic, it's all titles and epithets. Hopefully our "lady prince" and "young merman" are self-evident; part two introduces the "princess of the land of roses" (Antoinette) and the "knight from the northern lands" (Fersen). 
> 
> I'm also [on tumblr](http://mademoiselle-murasaki.tumblr.com/) ! Ask me questions for more behind-the-scenes ramblings! Goodness knows I have a lot of them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Help me, ancient one,” he called. “The lady prince is lost and I cannot reach her.”  
> The demon’s voice bubbled slowly to the surface, as if speaking from a great distance. _Indeed, she is far from here,_ it said, _and in grave peril._  
>  “Where?” asked the young merman, unable to conceal his desperation.  
>  _A place beyond mortal eyes,_ said the demon. _You could search for ten lifetimes and never find it._

**\- III -**

          For the first time in three years, the lady prince was free to walk along the shore with the young merman, smiling and putting aside thoughts of the rest of the world. It was easy to forget their troubles there, but then one of them would recall their journeys, or think of the princess and her knight, and they were reminded of how much they had grown since the young merman left the sea.

          He felt the lady prince’s gaze on him more often than usual as she studied the way his curls now tickled his ears whenever he turned his head, accompanied by the acrid sting of burnt hair whenever she got too close to the blunt and broken ends that wouldn’t grow back. But she said nothing about it, for which he was thankful, not wanting her to worry for him anymore.

          The prince’s thoughts were interrupted in the middle of winter, on a day when the gray-green waves left ice in their tracks down the shore, when a girl huddled in rags appeared at the castle, barefoot in the snow. In a heartbeat, the prince and her kindly mother took her in. So relieved was the poor girl in her tattered pink dress to be warm and dry at last that she fell into a slumber so deep she could not be persuaded to open her eyes for a night and a day. When she woke at last, the lady prince was waiting at her side, and by the time spring came again the girl had fallen quite in love.

          For a brief time, the young merman sulked jealously at the way the prince kept her new ward by her side, calling her spring breeze, but it passed when he saw how happy the prince was to have a precious new sister. He soon came to regard the girl’s innocent kindness in the same way, and the three of them spent many peaceful days together.

          One day, a messenger came from the land where roses grew to beg the aid of the lady prince. Without a second thought, the prince set out with the young merman and her spring breeze by her side.

          The princess of the land of roses was the first to meet them. “What is the matter?” asked the prince.

          Beckoning to the prince and her companions, the princess invited them in. “Come, for it is a long story to tell.”

          Once everyone had settled down after the sudden journey, the princess told the story of a thief that had plagued her kingdom since the prince’s departure. Garbed all in black, the thief struck without warning and vanished into the night with his prize. None could say with certainty from whence he came or where he would strike next. It was said that the thief had amassed a great trove of treasures in a cave that could not be found on any map, filled to bursting with fine jewels and swords of legend, famed silks from distant lands and ancient texts unknown even to the world’s greatest scholars.

          A message was delivered to the palace declaring the thief’s intent to steal away the queen’s most beautiful daughter, said to be the loveliest princess the land had ever known. “We have been jumping at shadows ever since,” admitted the princess, for although the queen had sent her finest soldiers to scour the countryside for the caped thief, he could not be found.

          As long as the thief walked free, the prince knew, the princess would be in danger. But how could she catch someone who, as far as any could tell, might appear at any moment and disappear into the night just as swiftly? Even the knight from the lands to the north, whom the prince trusted deeply, could find no trace of him.

          Forming an audacious plan, the prince caught the eye of the young merman and saw him nod in affirmation, coming to all the same conclusions. “I will lay a trap for the thief,” said the lady prince, and called upon the queen to allow grand balls and banquets to be held in the palace to lure out the thief in the night.

          The princess rose to the task with pleasure, and news travelled throughout the kingdom of her gatherings, each more extravagant than the last. But still the thief did not appear. Every night she devised a new reason to celebrate – a dance in thanks of the harvest, a feast to honor the realm’s bravest knights. The prince had been certain that the thief would be unable to resist the drama of interrupting a grand opera; only the young merman was near enough to witness her frustrated outburst when the curtain fell without incident.

          The first signs of winter approached with the princess’ birthday. Spirits buoyed by the festivities, the princess begged to hold a masquerade ball, forgetting the danger that still haunted her home. The prince did not have it in her heart to deny the princess her fun, and received the queen’s permission. Even she began to wonder if the phantom thief existed at all.

          All of the kingdom’s courtiers arrived in their masked finery, identities concealed under heaps of lace and jewels. Only the prince stood undisguised with the young merman at her side, keeping watch over the revelers. Set free from her mother’s careful watch, the princess danced the evening away with her faithful knight, flitting about the dreamy ballroom.

          Suddenly, a familiar scream rent the air; the lady prince tore her eyes from the dancing couple to see her spring breeze caught in long cloak, black as night. Panic rippled through the room as the courtiers realized the thief’s presence in their midst. “The princess is mine!” he declared, victorious, as the girl struggled to free herself from the folds of his cloak.

          “No!” cried the prince, but she could not reach them in time. The thief vanished in a whirl of darkness, leaving only screams of terror in his wake.

          Instead of the princess of the land of roses, safe in the arms of her knight, the thief had taken the prince’s spring breeze. The young merman could do little to ease the prince’s burden, inconsolable in her failure to carry out her sworn duty. The very next morning, the lady prince set off to join the search for her stolen ward, leaving the young merman behind to watch over the palace in her stead, for she trusted none more than he to do so.

          Days stretched into weeks without word from the prince on her quest, troubling the young merman and their friends. On the darkest day of winter, fearing the worst, he set out after her, tracing the path of the queen’s soldiers across the countryside. In every village he inquired about the lady prince, and every time was told that she had last been seen journeying to the east.

          So the young merman followed her east, though the ground beneath his feet was harsh and his footprints soon ran with blood. He passed into the next kingdom, then another, across distant lands until he reached a grey, stormy ocean and could walk no further.

          Wading out into the crashing tide, the young merman called out to the demon that lived in the sea, not knowing where else to turn. “Help me, ancient one,” he called. “The lady prince is lost and I cannot reach her.”

          The demon’s voice bubbled slowly to the surface, as if speaking from a great distance. _Indeed, she is far from here,_ it said, _and in grave peril._

          “Where?” asked the young merman, unable to conceal his desperation.

          _A place beyond mortal eyes,_ said the demon. _You could search for ten lifetimes and never find it._

          “Please, give me the power to see that place,” begged the young merman. “I owe the prince my life; I cannot abandon her.”

          The demon considered his plea. _I can grant you this power. What will you give me in return?_

          “Anything.”

          _One of your shining eyes will suffice,_ said the demon.

          “Take my eye,” said the young merman. “I do not need it to follow the lady prince.”

          The demon’s rumbling grew to a roar that drove the young merman to clutch at his ears, in vain, to protect them from the sound. Searing pain erupted behind his left eye, sending him to his knees with a mute scream, but no matter how many frigid waves broke over his head, the burning could not be abated.

          At long last, he dragged himself from the water in the ringing silence. He pulled himself slowly to his feet, and though the young merman’s eyes opened, one was clouded forever by blindness.

          Before he moved again, the demon spoke from the ocean. _Go south from this place,_ it advised. _After a journey of three days and three nights, you will come to the tallest mountains in the world. Your prince is lost in the caves that run beneath them._

          The young merman stumbled away, tripping over his own feet and having great difficulty walking in a straight line. It took miles and miles to regain his footing, but eventually the ocean disappeared from sight.

          On the first day, he trekked across a hot, barren plain, where the only things that dared to stand were the shriveled, tangled branches of long-dead trees, and food crumbled to dust in his hands. Sand gave way to boulders on the second day as the young merman clambered through monstrously sharp rocks into a vicious alpine wind, but the ragged terrain could not slow his progress. He began his ascent into the clouds on the third day, and the entire world vanished under the mist.

          When the air finally cleared, the young merman stood alone between the sky and the peaks of the highest mountains in the world. Gray cliff faces towered over him, none offering so much as a crack in which a mouse might nest, and he began to doubt the demon’s words. Yet there was a place where the wind screamed into the mountainside without pause. Drawing closer, the rocks shimmered in the thin air, flickering under the scrutiny of the power granted to him by the demon, revealing the endless darkness beyond. The young merman raised his hand to brush across the illusory rock face, gasping when he fell through.

          The caves were pitch black and howled with such cold that the young merman felt it chill his very bones. So that he did not lose his way, he tied a rope to his belt and inched along the craggy walls in the dark.

          Untold hours of walking passed before he caught sight of a faint glow, which grew steadily into a light from which he had to shield his face.

          “Who goes there?” demanded the torchbearer in a voice more familiar than his own.

          Lowering his hands, the young merman blinked and saw the lady prince holding a burning torch aloft, clutching her spring breeze, wavering and exhausted, to her side. Both stumbled along on their last legs, the prince as tall as ever despite her haunted eyes. She had wrapped her ruined white cloak around the shivering girl, trying in vain to keep the cold at bay. She stood a moment, still and wary, before recognizing her oldest friend.

          “It’s you!” the prince exclaimed, running to him without once releasing the hand of her precious spring breeze. The young merman wrapped his arms around both of them, holding them close so they would never be lost again. The prince was the first to draw away. “Hurry. We may have been followed.”

          Handing her spring breeze into the care of the young merman, the prince turned and drew her sword, vigilant for any sign of their pursuer. “We’ve been lost in the caves for days,” the girl confessed as they followed the rope back through the dark, relating the story of their escape from the thief’s lair in a tiny voice, while the prince pursed her lips and offered no further details. It was impossible to tell one path from the next; the young merman wondered if even the thief knew the secrets of his mountain caves.

          Promises of escape could be felt on the frigid alpine air when their foe materialized out of the darkness faster than they could flee. The prince whirled to face him, brandishing the burning torch to keep the thief at bay. “Get her out of here!” she commanded the young merman. “Run!”

          He hesitated but a moment before obeying, supporting the girl as she tripped over what was left of her tattered silk slippers. Echoes of clashing blades chased them from the caves and onto the blinding white mountainside. Right behind them was the thief, lured at last into the light of day, and the lady prince, standing resolutely between him and her ward. The young merman drew his own sword to come to her aid, knowing they could never outrun the thief as they were. For the first time, they saw their opponent clearly; a young man, not unlike themselves, moving without sound and striking as fast and sharp as lightning.

          Now on even footing, the fight turned in favor of the lady prince, with the young merman’s help to pin the thief down. Both were unrelenting, lest he turn and disappear into the folds of his dark cloak. The thief grew clumsier with each blow, slowed by the raw and painful burn inflicted by the prince’s torch. In desperation, he lunged at the young merman, who was nearest, but left himself open to the lady prince’s wrath. The thief’s blade spun through the thin air; a moment later, it was over. “Die!” cried the prince, raising her sword to strike him down.

          “No!”

          Barely staying her hand in time, the prince looked down at the pale, trembling arms wrapped around her middle; the young merman restrained the defeated thief instead. “You mustn’t kill him!” cried her spring breeze.

          “I cannot forgive this man,” the prince said slowly between labored breaths. “He will answer for his crimes.”

          “You mustn’t!” insisted the girl. “He is unarmed; you are no murderer!”

          The prince looked to the young merman, and he returned her gaze with calm agreement before she even had to ask for his thoughts. Slowly, the prince lowered her sword, trembling all over with rage. In one swift motion, she tore the black cloak from the thief’s shoulders and ripped it cleanly in two before turning her back on him.

          “Let’s go,” said the prince, and led them down the mountain.

          When they at last finished the arduous journey home, taking turns carrying the girl on their backs when she grew too tired to go on, the lady prince ensured that all was well with her family, that her spring breeze was safe and warm, and that an entire castle lay between her ward and the captured thief before retiring herself.

          No sooner had she retreated behind closed doors than did her exhausted body betray her and stumble; the young merman, at the prince’s side, caught her arms and steadied her. The prince slumped into a chair and buried her face in her hands without a word while the young merman tended the waiting fire, sitting in silence to gather her thoughts until one slipped out. “I didn’t think we would make it back.”

          Afraid that he would see the brave prince crumble away before him, the young merman reached out to reassure her. The prince looked up at his touch, reminded that she was not alone. “Thank you,” she said, smiling at last, “for coming for me.”

          Not long after their ordeal came to a close, the prince journeyed again to visit the princess of the land where roses grew, carrying the long-awaited news that her kingdom was safe once more, and laid the remains of the black cloak at her feet before the court. “The thief is dead by my hand,” proclaimed the lady prince. “I bring you this trophy as proof of his end.”

          The queen thanked the lady prince, and granted her the pieces of the cloak as a reward for her bravery. That same night, the princess threw a grand ball in celebration, charming even the prince into dancing with her a while. All too soon, it seemed, the music ended; the prince made a deep bow and handed the princess over to the knight from the lands to the north, who waited for them. She watched the pair dance in a world all their own and felt her heart, so carefully guarded, stir with an unfamiliar envy she dared not name.

          Dawn beckoned the revelers to retire at last, and the prince left quietly for home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The third arc, aka the Black Knight arc, everybody! With the introduction of the spring breeze (Rosalie) and the thief (Bernard) the main cast is more or less assembled!  
> I'll be out of the country next month, but hopefully I'll bring home a completed fourth arc! We'll see how it goes... I make no promises, sadly.


End file.
